In The Event That

You're Having Trouble Turning Cookie Sheets Into Solar Panels

by Andrew Thompson

Rhizome Collective Sustainable Living Workshop | Thu., Aug. 14, 7 p.m., Wooden Shoe Books, 508 S. Fifth St., 215-413-0999, rhizomecollective.org

When peak oil is 50 years past and global warming has brought humanity to a standstill, you'll wish you had started your own sustainable collective. The best time to dig in, of course, is not post-apocalypse — it's right now. This evening, Scott Kellogg, one of the founders of the Rhizome Collective in Austin, Texas, will lecture on the merits of sustainable collectives and give advice on how to start your own.

Good news is, you don't have to move out to the country to create a new eco-village; you can do it right here in Philly. Although the Rhizome model is applicable to any setting, it's designed for urban areas, which are home to more than 50 percent of the world's population. "A lot of people want to go off and create separate sustainable communities," says Kellogg. "But cities create a lot of waste products that can be used to create fertility. There's so much existing infrastructure that can be worked with." The workshop will focus on how to kick the oil habit as well as how to provide basic necessities with salvaged and recycled materials.

Earlier this year, Kellog and Rhizome partner Stacey Pettigrew (pictured together with daughter Eleanor) published Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide, a comprehensive manual to ripping the asphalt up from under your ass and replacing it with aquaculture and chicken coops. If all the tilapia you raised died within a week, now is your chance to figure out why.